Guest Opinion: Sometimes, as with the Berghdal matter, you can't make it up

Tuesday

Jun 10, 2014 at 4:00 PMJun 10, 2014 at 4:12 PM

As summer approaches, I scan the Kindle storefront for the latest spy novel. As fast as they are published, they are consumed. While waiting for the newest edition, reality captures my attention. The release of American prisoner Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban commanders seems to have much in common with the plots of so many thrillers I've read.

Edward D. Costar

As summer approaches, I scan the Kindle storefront for the latest spy novel. As fast as they are published, they are consumed. While waiting for the newest edition, reality captures my attention. The release of American prisoner Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban commanders seems to have much in common with the plots of so many thrillers I’ve read.

In the spy genre, Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn were my favorite writers. When they died this past year, a little bit of me went with them. As a youngster, recreational reading consisted mostly of sports biographies of baseball stars like Willie Mays. I didn’t read much for fun in high school or college. Then one glorious summer, I discovered Clancy and his CIA characters: Jack Ryan, John Clark, and Ding Chavez. His stories seemed authentic and reflected current international affairs. It was Clancy who first described an airplane, piloted by a terrorist, being flown into a federal building, many years before the horror of 9/11.

Later Vince Flynn captured my fancy. His main character, Mitch Rapp, was a hard-nosed, CIA assassin who fought terrorism across the globe while saving the U.S. from annihilation once or twice. Rapp was especially familiar with places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. His style was not unlike the Jack Bauer persona from the television series “24.”

Meanwhile, the Bergdahl affair has been difficult to follow. As with most news accounts, getting at the truth is never easy. In our polarized society, extremists on both the political left and right often use an event to fit their own agendas.

In its most simple form, the facts dictate that Sgt. Bergdahl, a soldier who walked away from his post in war time Afghanistan, was captured by the enemy and later swapped for five highly valued Taliban prisoners who had been held in the military detention center at Guantanamo. On the surface, most would agree that this was an uneven exchange. In baseball terms, it resembles Babe Ruth being traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees; clearly a deal which favored one side over the other.

Without dwelling too long on the political ramifications of this event, one has to wonder who came up with the brilliant idea of sending Susan Rice out before the Sunday talk shows to defend the switch. Imagine if she had been the Red Sox publicist in 1918.

“Ms. Rice can you explain the transaction which sent Babe Ruth to the Yankees?”

“Why certainly. First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Ruth for his honorable and distinguished service during his time with the Red Sox. What we got in return will enable us to invest in our farm system to ensure that we have a competitive team for many years to come.”

Uh huh …

Back in the real world, other issues have become hotly debated. Was Bergdahl a collaborator or a misguided soul who suffered from Stockholm syndrome? The question which bothers me the most is: Why? Why did we make such a deal? It makes no sense. The answer became clearer when, in a recent television interview, I heard a reporter speaking to Brad Thor.

For the uninformed, Mr. Thor is another accomplished spy novelist. His primary hero, Scot Harvath, travels all over the Middle East tracking down terrorists. As might be expected, the writer had his own unique theory of the Bergdahl affair.

Suddenly, after accumulating all the known facts and merging them with a mind that has been crammed full of books about plots, counter plots, spies, agents, double agents, assassins and conspiracy theories, I figured it out. I think I know why Bergdahl was traded for these five terrorists.

It was all part of a master CIA operation. Bergdahl was a trained agent who learned his craft well. The mission was to infiltrate the Taliban and recover vital intelligence. Nobody in his platoon was privy to this and thus Bowe had to convince his comrades that he was less than enthusiastic about America.

After letting himself get captured, he first attempted to escape in order to convince his abductors that he was a legitimate prisoner. Later his so-called conversion to Islam, and claims of being a Mujahidin warrior enabled him to gain their trust. When the time was right and he had achieved his intelligence objectives, he conveyed a signal through the counter intelligence “Eclipse Group” and notified his handlers that he was ready to “come in.”

As for the Taliban swap, this too was part of the plan. These five terrorists were carefully selected. As they slept, each one had a newly developed, untraceable tracking device, secretly implanted in his body. As phase two of the operation unfolds, the unsuspecting targets will be followed until they reach designated high valued locations where all will be destroyed using drones.

If drones are not feasible, a backup plan calls for a secret mission by an all-star group of CIA spies or mercenary assassins. Perhaps, Ryan, Clark, Chavez, Rapp and Harvath will each be assigned to one of the “fab five,” where additional intelligence will be gathered prior to their elimination.

As I said, you can’t make this stuff up. Or can you?

Edward Costar is a retired Fall River educator and an occasional contributor to these pages.